Wasn't his initial training a rather truncated affair as compared to others?

West Coast - he has to complete the long SARTU course (made longer because of the shortcomings of the Griffin in the SAR role under the contract) and then the Sea King OCU. It should be less than 18 months but probably not by a lot.

Crab, what Griffin shortcomings? no axe to grind just nosey!

Flagtrack - the nature of the contract with civilian owned, mil operated aircraft and mixed civilian and miltary crews requires the aircraft to be Safe Single Engine when live winching. In low wind speeds this is not possible in the Griffin so training is lost on many days.

It has been rumoured that SARTU will get new aircraft at some stage but that may just be to service other contracts.

Another factor is that SARTU, despite its name, is not run by the SARForce but by DHFS (tri-service helicopter training at Shawbury) who is its primary customer and therefore has priority when training is conducted.

Thanks Crab!:ok:

No doubt someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but there cannot be any way that he has fully "earned" his wings after spending 4 months seconded to the RAF. Surely he's going to have to go back and do the full Tucano course, then the full rotary course, picking up his wings "proper" along the way, then the full SAR course? All in 18 months? He cannot be let loose on an operational unit without meeting the required standards at every stage of the prescribed training - can he?

And another thing - wonder if he'll still be photographed stumbling out of that crappy club in Mayfair at 4am on a Tuesday morning quite so frequently? Didn't seem to matter much to the Army . . .

He shouldn't have to do tucanos, as many come to Shawbury straight from UAS/EFT. But i suspect he will need to do some flying on 60 sqn, as he has not worked with a crew, twin engines, NVG, Procedural. All of which he will need on a SAR flight. So some sort of Ad Hoc cse maybe before SARTU and SK OCU.

Did he ACTUALLY fly solo i.e. with just him in the aircraft?

Whereas I recall photos of his father and grandfather flying solo, the latter in this particularly good PR-type photo,

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...ghSolo1953.jpg


I don't recall photos of Wills flying in an aircraft other than when he was accompanied by an instructor.

"I don't recall photos of Wills flying in an aircraft other than when he was accompanied by an instructor."

he has stated that he flew solo

so either

A. he did

B. he lied on the national news, watched by several million people


the bloke can't bloody win with some people

Doing a close-formation photo shoot with a first soloist? Who in his right mind would auth that?

Check this out for top journalism......PRINCE William was seen in a bar in Barnstaple last night.

Hmmm - but it doesn't say if he was eating or drinking without help (ie solo).

Leave the poor fella alone.

Royal Bar Flies
 

Reminds me of the scenario at a not so secret Scottish base when our heir presumptive was a stude in the locality. The ladies had a text network running which would report which pub he was in and they'd all flock there. Young fighter types on base got wind of this and arranged to turn up at same pub just before closing time - rationale? As HRH made his way home there would be a lot of disappointed totty hanging about and the lads saw this as a truly target rich environment!

A plan so cunning ..................... :D

Cue Minigundiplomat chiming in with "fighter jocks living on (future) helicopter hero's scraps" banter! :ok:

Hmmmmm - single trainee pilot in his twenties goes to pub - Hold the Front Page!

So what? When at DHFS he was spotted in the Armoury in Shrewsbury and the Fox in Shawbury, with course mates - I say again - so what?

Poor s*d is damned if he does (go out and be normal) and damned if he doesn't - give him a bit of space while he can enjoy being (relatively) normal...:ok:

Not just enriching the economy in Barnstaple and Shrewsbury, it would seem:

CAFE owner Charles Brathwaite is used to rustling up cheeseburgers and bacon baps, but it's not every day they disappear down a royal gullet.

The Fairy family popped in to Swansea the day after this - purely unrelated, it must be said - and the cafe owner was quietly stoked about it.

D'ya know.....the Endurance of the mighty Sea King isn't what it used to be.

Solo flights
 

Both himself and little bro flew solo at Shawbury

vecvechook:

Either a lack of fuel at Swansea, due to the unannounced arrival of a type needing Jet A-1, or the consumed burgers adding to the "who ate all the pies" payload ? Your call.

Just to point out that both have done the FULL DHFS course. PW is in the throes of completing/completed the FULL SARTU and Sea King course, PH the Middle Wallop side of things. No short cuts, no short courses prior to full time employment on the front line - there is no 'royal short cut' as ap seems to insinuate. Perhaps that is a better story for the press hounds frequenting these pages.